“Last night, the Broadcasters Foundation and the broadcast industry lost a great man,” said Scott Herman, chairman of the Broadcasters Foundation. “As chairman of the Broadcasters Foundation for many years, Phil left an indelible mark. He was passionate about our mission and one of our biggest donors, giving both time and money to helping colleagues in need.”

“It would be impossible for me to quantify all that I learned from Phil Lombardo over the course of our nearly 40-year association,” said Ray Cole, president and COO, Citadel Communications. “Phil was a boss, a mentor, and a partner. Most of all, he was a dear friend who changed my life in immeasurable ways. While his impact on the broadcasting industry was vast and deep, Phil’s enduring legacy will be the vision and passion with which he led the Broadcasters Foundation of America. His contributions to its mission — helping fellow broadcasters in need — had no bounds. That commitment is sure to live on forever.”

NAB President-CEO Curtis LeGeyt said in a statement: “Phil Lombardo was a pioneer in the broadcasting industry; his contributions were immense and his influence widespread. His passion for broadcasting set a standard that will continue to inspire generations to come.

“Phil’s leadership extended beyond his business achievements. His service as NAB joint board chair helped shape the future of our association and left an indelible mark on our industry. But his legacy will certainly be his work to help broadcasters in their times of greatest need, through the Broadcasters Foundation of America (BFOA). I had the privilege of serving with him on the BFOA board and witnessing firsthand his unwavering dedication to the men and women of the broadcast industry, giving back to those who have given so much to our communities across the country.

“We extend our deepest condolences to Phil’s family, friends and colleagues during this difficult time. His legacy will live on, and he will be deeply missed.”

Lombardo’s impactful role as Broadcasters Foundation chairman from 2000 to 2015 was vital to the foundation’s ability to increase the amount of grants awarded annually to broadcasters in need from just over $60,000 in 2000 to nearly $2 million in recent years.

“Phil had a strong personality, but his heart was bigger,” added Tim McCarthy, president of the  foundation. “No one worked harder than Phil to raise money from our biggest donors. He gave more than anyone in our industry to colleagues who need it most.”

The family has requested that in lieu of flowers donations be made to the Philip J. Lombardo Memorial Fund, which will be established by the Broadcasters Foundation next week in honor of Lombardo’s dedication and service to the broadcasting industry and to the foundation’s charitable cause.

To honor his longstanding dedication to the Broadcasters Foundation, in 2000 the board passed a near unanimous vote to rename the annual golf tournament and fundraiser, held during the NAB Show in Las Vegas, to the Philip J. Lombardo Charity Golf Tournament. The one “no” vote was cast by Lombardo.

Lombardo always knew he wanted to go into broadcasting. Growing up in a neighborhood on Chicago’s near north side, radio was his companion. He began his career at WBBM-TV in Chicago as a production assistant and quickly rose to executive levels, earning a reputation for being a ‘turnaround’ manager.

The majority of Lombardo’s storied career was focused on buying, turning around, and selling TV stations for his privately held company, Citadel Communications. In 2003, Lombardo was elected to serve as joint board chairman of the National Association of Broadcasters. He was inducted into the Broadcasting + Cable Hall of Fame in October 2015.

The Broadcasters Foundation has distributed more than $15 million dollars in aid over the past 20 years. This year, the foundation will award approximately $1.8 million. More information about the Broadcasters Foundation, including how to make a donation or apply for aid, is available at www.broadcastersfoundation.org, 212-373-8250, or info@thebfoa.org.

The post Philip J. Lombardo, Citadel Communications CEO And Chairman Emeritus Of Broadcasters Foundation, Dies At 88 appeared first on TV News Check.

The crash occurred Thursday just west of Petit Nevis island near Bequia as the plane headed for nearby St. Lucia, police said in a statement.

They identified the daughters as Madita Klepser, 10, and Annik Klepser, 12, adding that the pilot, Robert Sachs, also died.

It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the crash, according to police.

Authorities said fishermen and divers in the area went to the crash site to help as the St. Vincent and Grenadines Coast Guard headed to the area.

“The selfless and brave acts of the fishermen and divers is very much appreciated,” police said.

The 51-year-old actor born in Germany had dozens of crediting film and television roles, including in the 2008 film “Speed Racer” film and “The Good German,” a 2006 World War II film by Steven Soderbergh that starred George Clooney and Cate Blanchett.

He appeared throughout season two of the 1990s series “Saved by the Bell: The New Class,” playing a Swiss transfer student named Brian Keller.

The post Actor Christian Oliver And His 2 Daughters Die In Plane Crash appeared first on TV News Check.

Bernard Kalb

Charles Kimbrough, a Tony- and Emmy-nominated actor who played a straight-laced news anchor opposite Candice Bergen on the 10 seasons of CBS hit sitcom Murphy Brown between 1988 and 1998, died Jan. 11. He was 86. Kimbrough played newsman Jim Dial on Murphy Brown, earning an Emmy nomination in 1990 for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series. He reprised the role for three episodes in the 2018 reboot.

Alan Komissaroff, SVP of news and politics at Fox News, died Jan. 20, two weeks after suffering a heart attack at his home. He was 47.

Deborah Barak, one of the most prominent, influential and beloved TV business executives of the past three decades, died Jan. 21, after a long battle with cancer. She was 65. Barak’s passing comes just two years after she left CBS at the end of 2020. A skilled negotiator who was highly respected by her peers, Barak — known to all as Debby — led the network’s and studio’s highest-profile negotiations. She brokered a slew of mega talent and show deals while always keeping her cool under pressure in the most chaotic situations.

Lloyd Morriset, who co-founded the Children’s Television Workshop with his close friend and fellow Sesame Street creator Joan Ganz Cooney in 1968, died Jan. 23. He continued to serve as chairman of the CTW board until 2000 and remained a board member until he died. Prompted in part by the Civil Rights Movement and the war on poverty, the duo set out to create a TV series that would give disadvantaged children a chance to prepare for school. Thus, they created Sesame Street in 1969. After famously spawning the hit children’s series, the Children’s Television Workshop was later renamed as Sesame Workshop. He was 93.

Cindy Williams, who was among the most recognizable stars in America in the 1970s and 1980s for her role as Shirley opposite Penny Marshall’s Laverne on the beloved sitcom Laverne & Shirley, died Jan. 25. Williams worked with some of Hollywood’s most elite directors in a film career that preceded her full-time move to television, appearing in George Cukor’s 1972 Travels With My Aunt, George Lucas’ 1973 American Graffiti and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation from 1974. But she was by far best known for Laverne & Shirley, the Happy Days spinoff that ran on ABC from 1976 to 1983 that in its prime was among the most popular shows on TV. She was 75.

Billy Packer, an Emmy award-winning college basketball broadcaster who covered 34 Final Fours for NBC and CBS, died Jan. 26. Packer’s broadcasting career coincided with the growth of college basketball. He worked as analyst or color commentator on every Final Four from 1975 to 2008. He received a Sports Emmy for Outstanding Sports Personality, Studio and Sports Analyst in 1993. He was 82.

Raquel Welch, whose emergence from the sea in a skimpy, furry bikini in the film One Million Years B.C. would propel her to international sex symbol status throughout the 1960s and ’70s, died Feb. 15. She was also nominated for a Golden Globe in 1988 for the TV movie Right to Die. She played herself and mocked divas in an episode of Seinfeld, memorably attacking Elaine and rattling Kramer. She was 82.

Barbara Bosson, who received Emmy nominations in five consecutive years for her turn as the divorcee Fay Furillo on the acclaimed NBC drama Hill Street Blues, co-created by her then-husband Steven Bochco, died Feb. 18. She was 83.

Richard Belzer, the longtime stand-up comedian who became one of TV’s most indelible detectives as John Munch in NBC’s Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order: SVU, died Feb. 19. He was 78. For more than two decades and across 10 series — even including appearances on 30 Rock and Arrested Development — Belzer played the wise-cracking, acerbic homicide detective prone to conspiracy theories. Belzer first played Munch on a 1993 episode of Homicide and last played him in 2016 on SVU.

Red McCombs, a former Texas used car dealer who became a billionaire entrepreneur by venturing into an array of successful businesses, including the media giant Clear Channel Communications and several professional sports teams, died Feb. 19. He was 95.

Robert Blake, the Emmy award-winning performer who went from acclaim for his acting to notoriety when he was tried and acquitted in the killing of his wife, died March 9 at age 89. Blake, star of the 1970s ABC show, Baretta, had once hoped for a comeback, but he never recovered from the long ordeal which began with the shooting death of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley, outside a restaurant on May 4, 2001. The story of their strange marriage, the child it produced and its violent end was a Hollywood tragedy played out in court.

Perry Cross, Johnny Carson‘s first producer on The Tonight Show before he exited to run an ABC program hosted by Jerry Lewis that came and went after 13 episodes, died March 9. He was 95.

Royal Blakeman, a president of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in the 1960s, died March 26. He was 99. Blakeman was president of the New York chapter of NATAS in 1963-65 and then as the seventh national president of the organization from 1966 to 1968. For a quarter-century, he was general counsel at the Recording Academy, which in 2003 presented him with its Trustees Award.

Mark Russell, a piano-playing comedian and political satirist, died on March 30. For more than 50 years, Russell took shots at all sectors of the political spectrum with stand-up monologues and song parodies. He was best known for his PBS specials, which he taped six times a year from 1975 to 2004.

Bill Lynch, best known as the anchor of CBS News Radio’s signature program World News Roundup, which he helmed for 15 years, died April 4. He was 77.

Herb Lazarus, a veteran international TV distribution executive who worked for 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures TV before launching his own shingle, died April 18 in Los Angeles. All told, Lazarus worked in the entertainment industry for more than 65 years, across 13 different companies. He was 88.

Barry Humphries, a Tony Award-winning comedian internationally renowned for his garish stage persona Dame Edna Everage, a condescending and imperfectly-veiled snob whose evolving character delighted audiences over seven decades, died April 22. He was 89.

Robert Crutchfield, who was a top publicity executive in television for MTM Enterprises, Lorimar and Universal, April 7. A onetime Houston radio deejay and 20th Century Fox contract player, Crutchfield in 1974 began an eight-year stint as VP marketing and publicity for MTM Enterprises, where he handled such acclaimed series as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, WKRP in Cincinnati, The Bob Newhart Show, Lou Grant, Phyllis, Rhoda and The White Shadow. He was 85.

Harry Belafonte, the civil rights and entertainment giant who began as a groundbreaking actor and singer and became an activist, humanitarian and conscience of the world, died April 25. He won a Tony Award in 1954 for his starring role in John Murray Anderson’s Almanac and five years later became the first Black performer to win an Emmy for the CBS special Tonight with Belafonte. He was 96.

Jerry Springer, the onetime Cincinnati mayor and news anchor whose namesake TV show featured a three-ring circus of dysfunctional guests willing to bare all — sometimes literally — as they brawled and hurled obscenities before a raucous audience, died April 27. At its peak, The Jerry Springer Show was a ratings powerhouse and a U.S. cultural pariah, synonymous with lurid drama. Known for chair-throwing and bleep-filled arguments, the daytime talk show was a favorite American guilty pleasure over its 27-year run, at one point topping Oprah Winfrey’s show. He was 79.

Newton N. Minow, who as FCC chairman in the early 1960s famously proclaimed that network television was a “vast wasteland,” died May 6 at 97. Though Minow remained in the FCC post just two years, he left a permanent stamp on the broadcasting industry through government steps to foster satellite communications, the passage of a law mandating UHF reception on TV sets and his outspoken advocacy for quality in television. He received a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.

George Watson, a former Washington bureau chief, White House correspondent and vice president for ABC News, died June 1. After serving as a correspondent and bureau chief in Moscow and London, where he covered major events in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Watson returned to the U.S. in 1975 as ABC News’ White House correspondent. A year later, he was named Washington bureau chief and vice president, a role he held two different times, spanning 12 years total. He was 86.

Pat Robertson, a religious broadcaster who turned a tiny Virginia television station into the global Christian Broadcasting Network, tried a run for president and helped make religion central to Republican Party politics in America through his Christian Coalition, died June 8. For more than a half-century, Robertson was a familiar presence in American living rooms, known for his 700 Club TV show, and in later years, his televised pronouncements of God’s judgment, blaming natural disasters on everything from homosexuality to the teaching of evolution. The money poured in as he solicited donations, his influence soared, and he brought a huge following with him when he moved directly into politics by seeking the GOP presidential nomination in 1988. He was 93.

Thomas W. Sarnoff, who had a six-decade career at NBC as the youngest son of RCA/NBC media mogul David Sarnoff, died June 4. He was hired at NBC in 1952 as an assistant to the director of finance and operations, and in 1957 he became VP production and business affairs. From 1965-77, he served as staff executive VP West Coast and president of NBC Entertainment Corp., reporting to the president of NBC. During that period, Sarnoff negotiated contracts for NBC’s Burbank studio and production deals with network talents like Bob Hope and Col. Tom Parker on behalf of Elvis Presley’s TV specials. He also oversaw the production and worldwide touring of live, all-family arena shows that included Peter Pan and Disney on Parade, a partnership with Walt Disney Productions. Following his career with NBC, Sarnoff created Sarnoff International Enterprises, which produced content like the Yabba Dabba Doo live-arena tour that featured Hanna-Barbera characters. He was 96.

Silvio Berlusconi, the boastful billionaire media mogul who was Italy’s longest-serving premier despite scandals over his sex-fueled parties and allegations of corruption, died June 12. He was 86.

Daniel Ellsberg, the history-making whistleblower who by leaking the Pentagon Papers revealed longtime government doubts and deceit about the Vietnam War and inspired acts of retaliation by President Richard Nixon that helped lead to his resignation, died June 16. He was 92.

David Bohrman, a longtime producer and news executive who was responsible for innovations in live and special events and breaking news, including at CNN and other networks, died June 25. “He was the creator of more news programming than almost any other producer working in television news today,” CNN’s leadership team wrote in a memo to employees. He was 69.

Alan Arkin, the wry character actor who demonstrated his versatility in everything from farcical comedy to chilling drama, in feature films and TV series, died June 30. He was 89.

Dr. Frank Field, a pioneering former WNBC New York meteorologist and health reporter, died July 1. He was 100. Field began his career in New York at WNBC in 1958. He quickly rose to national prominence when Johnny Carson decided needling “NBC’s crack meteorologist” would be good fun and he became a regular guest on The Tonight Show. Field learned meteorology at Brown University and MIT and served as an Army Air Force meteorology officer in the European theater during World War II. He also earned a degree in geology at Brooklyn College, a bachelor’s degree in optometry at Columbia University, and a doctorate on the faculty of Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He deployed those broad skills at NBC, adding health and science reporting to his broadcast portfolio. After 25 years with WNBC, Field left to join rival WCBS New York, and ended his television career at WWOR New York in 2004.

Bill Geddie, the legendary TV producer known for co-creating ABC’s The View and being Barbara Walters’ longtime producer, died July 21 at age 68. Geddie served as executive producer for The View for 17 years and was part of the talk show’s launch in 1997. He also served a short stint as the producer of the syndicated Tamron Hall from 2019 to 2020. Geddie was a partner in Walters’ BarWall Productions for 25 years and was the owner of Bill Geddie Productions. He also coproduced, wrote and directed programs such as the Barbara Walters Specials and The 10 Most Fascinating People.

Paul Reubens, the actor and comedian whose character Pee-wee Herman became a cultural phenomenon through films and TV shows, died July 30 after a six-year struggle with cancer that he did not make public. The character with his too-tight gray suit, white chunky loafers and red bow tie was best known for the film Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and the TV series Pee-wee’s Playhouse. Herman created Pee-wee when he was part of the Los Angeles improv group The Groundlings in the late 1970s. The live Pee-wee Herman Show debuted at a Los Angeles theater in 1981 and was a success with both kids during matinees and adults at a midnight show. HBO would air the show as a special. His television series, Pee-wee’s Playhouse, ran for five seasons, earned 22 Emmys and attracted not only children but adults to Saturday-morning TV.

William H. Dilday Jr., a Boston TV executive who moved to Jackson, Miss., in 1972 to manage the city’s NBC affiliate, becoming the country’s first Black person to run a commercial television station, died on July 27. He was 85. Dilday was 34, with a mere three years’ experience in the TV business, when he got a call from a nonprofit organization in Jackson, asking if he would be interested in taking over at WLBT, Mississippi’s largest station. The inquiry came after eight years of litigation by the United Church of Christ and a group of Black citizens against the station, which was owned by a local insurance company. Like many TV stations in the Jim Crow-era South, WLBT had given scant coverage to the civil rights movement, or to the lives and concerns of Black Mississippians in general. Dilday began making changes almost immediately. He hired a Black woman, Dorothy Gibbs, to create an integrated children’s show, Our Playmates. Within his first year he increased Black employment at the station to 35% from 15%, including as anchors, camera operators and news editors. He created an investigative series, Probe, that in 1976 won a Peabody Award for a series on political corruption in the state. After settling into his position in Jackson, Dilday joined a group of mostly Black investors in 1973 to buy a TV station in St. Croix, part of the U.S. Virgin Islands, making it the first Black-owned commercial station in the country. He was a founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists, created in 1975. Dilday moved from WLBT to Jackson’s CBS affiliate, WJTV, in 1985, where he stayed as station manager until retiring in 2000.

Johnny Hardwick, who voiced the conspiracy-minded character Dale Gribble on King of the Hill, died Aug. 8 at his home in Austin, Texas. Hardwick and his character with the distinctive Texas drawl had been with the Emmy-winning animated series since its debut in 1997 through its final episode on Fox in 2010.

Geoffrey Neigher, the TV writer-producer who penned episodes of The Bob Newhart Show, Rhoda and Murder One and shared an Emmy for outstanding drama series for his work on Picket Fences, died Aug. 10. He was 78.

Bob Barker, the enduring, dapper game show host who became a household name over a half century of hosting Truth or Consequences and The Price Is Right, died Aug. 26. Barker was working in radio in 1956 when producer Ralph Edwards invited him to audition as the new host of NBC’s Truth or Consequences, a daytime game show in which audience members had to do wacky stunts — the “consequence” — if they failed to answer a question — the “truth,” which was always the silly punchline to a riddle no one was ever meant to furnish. Barker stayed with Truth or Consequences for 18 years — including several years in a syndicated version. Meanwhile, he began hosting a resurrected version of The Price Is Right on CBS in 1972. It would become TV’s longest-running game show and the last on a broadcast network of what in TV’s early days had numbered dozens. In all, he taped more than 5,000 shows in his career. He said he was retiring in 2007 because “I’m just reaching the age where the constant effort to be there and do the show physically is a lot for me. … Better (to leave) a year too soon than a year too late.” Comedian Drew Carey was chosen to replace him. Barker was back with Carey for one show broadcast in April 2009. He was there to promote the publication of his memoir, Priceless Memories, in which he summed up his joy from hosting the show as the opportunity “to watch people reveal themselves and to watch the excitement and humor unfold.” He was 99.

Don Browne, a former NBC News and Telemundo executive, died Aug. 30. He was 80 years old. Browne retired from NBCUniversal in June 2011 after a six-year stint as president of Telemundo, and before that serving as the Spanish-language network’s chief operating officer. He had been with NBCU for more than 30 years, first joining the company as NBC News’ Miami bureau chief in 1979 after more than a decade at CBS News. In 1989, Browne was named executive news director, where he was the executive in charge of NBC’s Today show, and in 1991 became EVP of NBC News. While at NBC News he also oversaw the creation of Dateline.

David McCallum, who became a teen heartthrob in the NBC hit The Man From U.N.C.L.E. in the 1960s and was the eccentric medical examiner in the long-running CBS series NCIS 40 years later, died Sept. 25. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. debuted in 1964 with Robert Vaughn as Napoleon Solo, an agent in a secretive, high-tech squad of crime fighters whose initials stood for United Network Command for Law and Enforcement. Despite the Cold War, the agency had an international staff, with McCallum as Illya Kuryakin, Solo’s Russian sidekick. The series lasted until 1968. McCallum returned to television in 2003 in another series with an agency known by its initials — CBS’s NCIS. He played Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard, a bookish pathologist for the Naval Criminal Investigation Service, an agency handling crimes involving the Navy or the Marines. McCallum’s work with U.N.C.L.E. brought him two Emmy nominations, and he got a third as an educator struggling with alcoholism in a 1969 Hallmark Hall of Fame drama called Teacher, Teacher. He was 90.

Jonathan Dolgen, the tough-minded dealmaker and skillful numbers-cruncher who spent a decade at Viacom working for Sumner Redstone and alongside Paramount Pictures head Sherry Lansing, died Oct. 9. A native of Queens and a former Wall Street lawyer, Dolgen also held top positions at Columbia Pictures, Fox and Sony Pictures before becoming the first top executive recruited by Redstone for the newly merged entertainment conglomerate forged by Viacom’s $8.2 billion purchase of Paramount Communications. He was 78.

Suzanne Somers, the effervescent blonde actor known for playing Chrissy Snow on ABC’s Three’s Company and who became an entrepreneur and New York Times best-selling author, died Oct. 15. She appeared in many television shows in the 1970s, including The Rockford Files, Magnum Force and The Six Million Dollar Man, but her most famous part came with Three’s Company, which aired on ABC from 1977 to 1984 — though her participation ended in 1981. In 1980, after four seasons, she said she asked for a raise from $30,000 an episode to $150,000 an episode, which she described as comparable to what co-star John Ritter was getting paid. “The show’s response was, ‘Who do you think you are?’” Somers told People in 2020. “They said, ‘John Ritter is the star.’” She was promptly phased out and soon fired. Somers took the break as an opportunity to pursue new avenues, including a Las Vegas act, hosting a talk show and becoming an entrepreneur. In the 1990s, she also became the spokesperson for the ThighMaster. The decade also saw her return to network television in the 1990s, most famously on Step by Step, which aired on ABC’s youth-targeted TGIF lineup. The network also aired a biopic of her life, starring her, called Keeping Secrets. Somers was also a prolific author, writing books on aging, menopause, beauty, wellness, sex and cancer. She was 76.

Edward Bleier, who brought Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig and other Looney Tunes characters to generations of Saturday morning TV viewers before becoming a prime mover in the rise of cable television and the transformation of Time Warner Cable into an industry giant, died Oct. 17. He turned 94 the day before. A former journalist who began his career in newspapers and radio, Bleier was an innovator who foresaw industry-changing technologies and the need for fresh content to serve the emerging cable television market. At ABC and later at Warner Bros. Television, he gained a reputation for imaginative but also practical strategic thinking that helped usher in a new television era. From 1986 to 2000, he was president of a Warner Bros. division that developed basic cable networks such as Nickelodeon, MTV and The Movie Channel. He was credited with achieving record-breaking sales of vintage movies and older television series, shown in reruns, annually surpassing the income those productions had earned when first released.

Matthew Perry, the Emmy-nominated Friends actor whose sarcastic, but lovable Chandler Bing was among television’s most famous and most quotable characters, died Oct. 28 at 54. Perry’s 10 seasons on NBC’s Friends made him one of Hollywood’s most recognizable actors, starring opposite Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow and David Schwimmer. Friends ran from 1994 until 2004, winning one best comedy series Emmy Award in 2002. The cast notably banded together for later seasons to obtain a salary of $1 million per episode for each. Perry was open about his long and public struggle with addiction, writing at the beginning of his 2022 million-selling memoir: “Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.”

Philip Meyer, a former reporter who pioneered new ways to incorporate data, quantitative methods and computers into investigative journalism, died Nov. 4. He was 93. With a career spanning the latter half of the 20th century and several years into the 21st, Meyer was at the center of a revolution within the craft and business of journalism — a revolution that, to a large degree, he helped shape. Meyer was among the few reporters in the mid-1950s who saw the growing power of computers to crunch data and produce new insight into complex questions. In 1968 he shared in the Pulitzer Prize for local general or spot news reporting, which went to The Detroit Free Press for its coverage of a riot the year before in which he seized on a claim, common in the news media, that the rioters had mostly been poor, uneducated Black migrants from the South. He gathered as much demographic data as he could, ran it through a computer and got a much different picture: The rioters were more likely to be locally born, and were spread evenly across the socioeconomic spectrum.

Marty Krofft, the savvy businessman who partnered with his older brother Sid to amass an entertainment empire fueled by such mind-blowing kids TV shows as The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, H.R. Pufnstuf and Land of the Lost, died Nov. 25. He was 86. The pair already were well-known theatrical puppeteers when they were recruited in 1968 to design the costumes for the live-action portion of NBC’s The Banana Splits Adventure Hour. In 1970, the network asked them to create their own Saturday morning kids show, and the brothers came up with H.R. Pufnstuf, about a shipwrecked boy who lands on a magical island. The Kroffts followed Pufnstuf with The Bugaloos (1970-72), the Claymation series Lidsville (1971-73), Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (1973-75) and Land of the Lost (1974-76). Those shows were wildly popular in syndication as well. Long after other smaller kids producers like Hanna-Barbera had sold out to conglomerates, the Kroffts were still developing shows as the last of the great 1960s independents. As late as 2015, they had a hit on Nickelodeon with Mutt & Stuff.

Robert H. Precht, who for more than a decade produced The Ed Sullivan Show, the CBS Sunday night variety extravaganza that for 23 years brought singers, comedians, rock bands, jugglers, animal acts and the Italian mouse puppet Topo Gigio into the living rooms of millions of viewers, died on Nov. 26. He was 93.

Norman Lear, the television writer and producer who introduced political and social commentary into situation comedy with All in the Family and other shows, proving that it was possible to be topical as well as funny while attracting millions of viewers, died Dec. 5 at 101. He reigned at the top of the television world through the 1970s and into the early ’80s, leaving a lasting mark with shows that brought the sitcom into the real world. Lear’s shows sent different messages, far more in tune with what was actually happening in those turbulent times. His crowning achievement was All in the Family, and his greatest creation was Archie Bunker, the focus of that show and one of the most enduring characters in television history. All in the Family sent a shock through the sleepy world of the sitcom with one tart, topical episode after another from the moment it premiered on CBS on Jan. 12, 1971. Lear went on to create a television empire and to become politically active, notably with his founding of the liberal advocacy organization People for the American Way, the kind of organization that Archie Bunker would have enjoyed sneering at. The Lear philosophy was further developed in two shows built around characters who originally appeared on All in the Family: Maude and The Jeffersons. Not all of Mr. Lear’s shows grew out of Archie’s universe. One that did not, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, raised as many eyebrows as All in the Family. Among his many other shows were Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time and Good Times.

André Braugher, the two-time Emmy-winning star of series including Homicide: Life on the Street, Men of a Certain Age and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, died Dec. 11 at 61. Braugher’s first film role came alongside Matthew Broderick and Denzel Washington in the Ed Zwick-directed Glory. While Braugher peppered his résumé with comedies, many will remember him for his ferocious portrayal of Detective Frank Pembleton in the NBC drama Homicide: Life on the Street. Put him in “the box,” sweating out and outsmarting crime suspects in the interrogation room, and you were looking at a weekly dose of tour de force acting, as good as it got on television during that time. He won an Emmy for that show he starred in from 1992 to 1998. For eight seasons, Braugher starred alongside Andy Samberg in the hit comedy series Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and he won two Critics Choice Awards for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and received four Emmy Award nominations for his role as Captain Ray Holt in the series that began on Fox and later moved to NBC. Before that, he starred on the two seasons of acclaimed TNT series Men of a Certain Age alongside Ray Romano and Scott Bakula. He received two Emmy nominations for his role as an anxiety-stricken diabetic dad on the show. He also starred in the 2008 sci-fi miniseries The Andromeda Strain alongside Benjamin Bratt and Eric McCormack for A&E.

Tom Smothers, half of the Smothers Brothers and the co-host of one of the most socially conscious and groundbreaking television shows in the history of the medium, died Dec. 27 at 86. When The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour debuted on CBS in the fall of 1967 it was an immediate hit, to the surprise of many who had assumed the network’s expectations were so low it positioned their show opposite NBC’s top-rated Bonanza. But the Smothers Brothers would prove a turning point in television history, with its sharp eye for pop culture trends and young rock stars and its daring sketches — ridiculing the Establishment, railing against the Vietnam War and portraying members of the era’s hippie counterculture as gentle, fun-loving spirits — found an immediate audience with young baby boomers. The show reached No. 16 in the ratings in its first season. It also drew the ire of network censors, and after years of battling with the brothers over the show’s creative content, the network abruptly canceled the program in 1970, accusing the siblings of failing to submit an episode in time for the censors to review. After the show was canceled, the brothers sued CBS for $31 million and were awarded $775,000. Their battles with the network were chronicled in the 2002 documentary Smothered: The Censorship Struggles of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Nearly 40 years later, when Smothers was awarded an honorary Emmy for his work on the show, he jokingly thanked the writers he said had gotten him fired. He also showed that the years had not dulled his outspokenness.

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The National Comedy Center, on behalf of his family, said in a statement Wednesday that Smothers died Tuesday at home in Santa Rosa, California, following a cancer battle.

“Tom was not only the loving older brother that everyone would want in their life, he was a one-of-a-kind creative partner,” his brother and the duo’s other half, Dick Smothers, said in the statement. “Our relationship was like a good marriage — the longer we were together, the more we loved and respected one another. We were truly blessed.”

When “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” debuted on CBS in the fall of 1967 it was an immediate hit, to the surprise of many who had assumed the network’s expectations were so low it positioned their show opposite the top-rated “Bonanza.”

But the Smothers Brothers would prove a turning point in television history, with its sharp eye for pop culture trends and young rock stars such as the Who and Buffalo Springfield, and its daring sketches — ridiculing the Establishment, railing against the Vietnam War and portraying members of the era’s hippie counterculture as gentle, fun-loving spirits — found an immediate audience with young baby boomers. The show reached No. 16 in the ratings in its first season.

It also drew the ire of network censors. After years of battling with the brothers over the show’s creative content, the network abruptly canceled the program in 1970, accusing the siblings of failing to submit an episode in time for the censors to review.

Nearly 40 years later, when Smothers was awarded an honorary Emmy for his work on the show, he jokingly thanked the writers he said had gotten him fired. He also showed that the years had not dulled his outspokenness.

“It’s hard for me to stay silent when I keep hearing that peace is only attainable through war,” Smothers said at the 2008 Emmy Awards as his brother sat in the audience, beaming. He dedicated his award to those “who feel compelled to speak out and are not afraid to speak to power and won’t shut up and refuse to be silenced.”

During the three years the show was on television, the brothers constantly battled with CBS censors and occasionally outraged viewers as well, particularly when Smothers joked that Easter “is when Jesus comes out of his tomb and if he sees his shadow, he goes back in and we get six more weeks of winter.” At Christmas, when other hosts were sending best wishes to soldiers fighting overseas, Smothers offered his to draft dodgers who had moved to Canada.

In still another episode, the brothers returned blacklisted folk singer Pete Seeger to television for the first time in years. He performed his song “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy,” widely viewed as ridiculing President Lyndon Johnson. When CBS refused to air the segment, the brothers brought Seeger back for another episode and he sang it again. This time, it made the air.

After the show was canceled, the brothers sued CBS for $31 million and were awarded $775,000. Their battles with the network were chronicled in the 2002 documentary “Smothered: The Censorship Struggles of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.”

“Tom Smothers was not only an extraordinary comedic talent, who, together with his brother Dick, became the most enduring comedy duo in history, entertaining the world for over six decades — but was a true champion for freedom of speech, harnessing the power of comedy to push boundaries and our political consciousness,” National Comedy Center Executive Director Journey Gunderson said in a statement.

Thomas Bolyn Smothers III was born Feb. 2, 1937, on Governors Island, New York, where his father, a Navy major, was stationed. His brother was born two years later. In 1940 their father was transferred to the Philippines, and his wife, two sons and their sister, Sherry, accompanied him.

When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the family was sent home and Maj. Smothers remained. He was captured by the Japanese during the war and died in captivity. The family eventually moved to the Los Angeles suburb of Redondo Beach, where Smothers helped his mother take care of his brother and sister while she worked.

The brothers had seemed unlikely to make television history. They had spent several years on the nightclub and college circuits and doing TV guest appearances, honing an offbeat comedy routine that mixed folk music with a healthy dose of sibling rivalry.

They would come on stage, Tom with a guitar in hand and Dick toting an upright bass. They would quickly break into a traditional folk song — perhaps “John Henry” or “Pretoria.” After playing several bars, Tom, positioned as the dumb one, would mess up, then quickly claim he had meant to do that. As Dick, the serious, short-tempered one, berated him for failing to acknowledge his error, he would scream in exasperation, “Mom always liked you best!”

They continued that shtick on their show but also surrounded themselves with a talented cast of newcomers, both writers and performers.

Among the crack writing crew that Smothers headed were future actor-filmmaker Rob Reiner, musician Mason Williams and comedian Steve Martin, who presented Smothers with the lifetime Emmy. Regular musical guests included John Hartford, Glen Campbell and Jennifer Warnes.

Bob Einstein had a recurring role as Officer Judy, a dour Los Angeles police officer who once cited guest Liberace for playing the piano too fast. Leigh French, as the hippie earth mother in the segment “Share a Little Tea With Goldie,” always appeared to have been drinking something brewed with more than just tea leaves.

The brothers had begun their own act when Tom, then a student at San Jose State University, formed a music group called the Casual Quintet and encouraged his younger brother to learn the bass and join. The brothers continued on as a duo after the other musicians dropped out, but began interspersing comedy with their limited folk music repertoire.

Their big break came in 1959 when they appeared at San Francisco’s Purple Onion, then a hot spot for new talent. Booked for two weeks, they stayed a record 36. Booked into New York’s Blue Angel, they won praise from The New York Times, which described them as “a pair of tart-tongued singing comedians.” But to their disappointment, they couldn’t get on “The Tonight Show,” then hosted by Jack Paar.

“Paar kept telling our agent he didn’t like folk singers — except for Burl Ives,” Smothers told The Associated Press in 1964. “But one night he had a cancellation, and we went on. Everything worked right that night.”

The brothers went on to appear on the TV shows of Steve Allen, Ed Sullivan, Garry Moore, Andy Williams, Jack Benny and Judy Garland. Their comedy albums were big sellers and they toured the country, especially colleges.

Television first came calling in 1965, casting them in “The Smothers Brothers Show,” a sitcom about a businessman (Dick) haunted by his late brother (Tom), a fledgling guardian angel. It lasted just one season.

Shortly after CBS canceled the “Comedy Hour,” ABC picked it up as a summer replacement, but the network didn’t bring it back in the fall. NBC gave them a show in 1975 but it failed to find an audience and lasted only a season. The brothers went their separate ways for a time in the 1970s. Among other endeavors, Smothers got into the wine business, launching Remick Ridge Vineyards in Northern California’s wine country.

“Originally the winery was called Smothers Brothers, but I changed the name to Remick Ridge because when people heard Smothers Brothers wine, they thought something like Milton Berle Fine Wine or Larry, Curly and Mo Vineyards,” Smothers once said.

They eventually reunited to star in the musical comedy “I Love My Wife,” a hit that ran on Broadway for two years. After that they went back on the road, playing casinos, performing arts centers and corporate gatherings around the country, remaining popular for decades.

“We just keep resurfacing,” Smothers commented in 1997. “We’re just not in everyone’s face long enough to really get old.”

After a successful 20th anniversary “Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” in 1988, CBS buried the hatchet and brought them back.

The show was quickly canceled, though it stayed on the air long enough for Smothers to introduce the “Yo-Yo Man,” a bit allowing him to demonstrate his considerable skills with a yo-yo while he and his brother kept up a steady patter of comedy. The bit remained in their act for years.

Smothers married three times and had three children. He is survived by his wife Marie, children Bo and Riley Rose, and brother Dick, in addition to other relatives. He was predeceased by his son Tom and sister Sherry.

Former Associated Press journalists John Rogers, Frazier Moore and the late Bob Thomas contributed to this report.

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De los Reyes died Sunday following a brief battle with cancer, according to a statement from Lisa Goldberg, a publicist for de los Reyes’ wife, Sherri Saum.

In “One Life to Live,” de los Reyes starred as Antonio Vega, a former gang member who became a lawyer and then a cop, alongside Saum. In the popular video game “Call of Duty: Black Ops II,” he played the villain Raul Menendez. He also had roles in Fox’s “Sleepy Hollow,” ABC’s “The Rookie” and CW’s “All American.”

The family statement said that at the time of his death, de los Reyes was filming “All American” — and had recently shot roles in Marvel’s upcoming “Daredevil” series and Hulu’s yet to be released “Washington Black,” starring Sterling K. Brown.

De los Reyes was born in Puerto Rico and raised in Las Vegas. According to a biography provided by the family, he caught the bug for acting when he arrived in Los Angeles in the late ’80s. Early roles include playing Pedro Quinn in the 1994 off-Broadway play, “Blade to the Heat,” and Ferdinand in director George C. Wolfe’s production of “The Tempest” for Shakespeare in the Park.

On the big screen, de los Reyes appeared in Oliver Stone’s “Nixon,” playing Watergate burglar Eugenio Martinez, as a secret service agent in “Salt,” with Angelina Jolie, and in “The Cell” with Jennifer Lopez.

“De los Reyes lived in Los Angeles, however, his heart never left Puerto Rico,” the family statement said, adding that the actor had been active in the recovery efforts after Hurricane Maria in 2017.

The actor is survived by wife Saum and three sons, Caylen, 26, and twins Michael and John, age 9.

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Lear died Tuesday night in his sleep, surrounded by family at his home in Los Angeles, said Lara Bergthold, a spokesperson for his family.

A liberal activist with an eye for mainstream entertainment, Lear fashioned bold and controversial comedies that were embraced by viewers who had to watch the evening news to find out what was going on in the world. His shows helped define prime time comedy in the 1970s, launched the careers of Rob Reiner and Valerie Bertinelli and made middle-aged superstars of Carroll O’Connor, Bea Arthur and Redd Foxx.

Lear “took television away from dopey wives and dumb fathers, from the pimps, hookers, hustlers, private eyes, junkies, cowboys and rustlers that constituted television chaos, and in their place he put the American people,” the late Paddy Chayefsky, a leading writer of television’s early “golden age,” once said.

Tributes poured in after his death: “I loved Norman Lear with all my heart. He was my second father. Sending my love to Lyn and the whole Lear family,” Reiner wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “More than anyone before him, Norman used situation comedy to shine a light on prejudice, intolerance, and inequality. He created families that mirrored ours,” Jimmy Kimmel said.

“All in the Family” was immersed in the headlines of the day, while also drawing upon Lear’s childhood memories of his tempestuous father. Racism, feminism, and the Vietnam War were flashpoints as blue collar conservative Archie Bunker, played by O’Connor, clashed with liberal son-in-law Mike Stivic (Reiner). Jean Stapleton co-starred as Archie’s befuddled but good-hearted wife, Edith, and Sally Struthers played the Bunkers’ daughter, Gloria, who defended her husband in arguments with Archie.

Lear’s work transformed television at a time when old-fashioned programs such as “Here’s Lucy,” “Ironside” and “Gunsmoke” still dominated. CBS, Lear’s primary network, would soon enact its “rural purge” and cancel such standbys as “The Beverly Hillbillies” and “Green Acres.” The groundbreaking sitcom “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” about a single career woman in Minneapolis, debuted on CBS in September 1970, just months before “All in the Family” started.

But ABC passed on “All in the Family” twice and CBS ran a disclaimer when it finally aired the show: “The program you are about to see is ‘All in the Family.’ It seeks to throw a humorous spotlight on our frailties, prejudices, and concerns. By making them a source of laughter we hope to show, in a mature fashion, just how absurd they are.”

By the end of 1971, “All In the Family” was No. 1 in the ratings and Archie Bunker was a pop culture fixture, with President Richard Nixon among his fans. Some of his putdowns became catchphrases. He called his son-in-law “Meathead” and his wife “Dingbat,” and would snap at anyone who dared occupy his faded orange-yellow wing chair. It was the centerpiece of the Bunkers’ rowhouse in Queens, and eventually went on display in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

Even the show’s opening segment was innovative: Instead of an off-screen theme song, Archie and Edith are seated at the piano in their living room, belting out a nostalgic number, “Those Were the Days,” with Edith screeching off-key and Archie crooning such lines as “Didn’t need no welfare state” and “Girls were girls and men were men.”

“All in the Family,” based on the British sitcom, “Til Death Us Do Part,” was the No. 1-rated series for an unprecedented five years in a row and earned four Emmy Awards as best comedy series, finally eclipsed by five-time winner “Frasier” in 1998.

Hits continued for Lear and then-partner Bud Yorkin, including “Maude” and “The Jeffersons,” both spinoffs from “All in the Family,” with the same winning combination of one-liners and social conflict. In a 1972 two-part episode of “Maude,” the title character (played by Arthur) became the first on television to have an abortion, drawing a surge of protests along with high ratings. And when a close friend of Archie’s turned out to be gay, Nixon privately fumed to White House aides that the show “glorified” same-sex relationships.

“Controversy suggests people are thinking about something. But there’d better be laughing first and foremost or it’s a dog,” Lear said in a 1994 interview with The Associated Press.

Lear and Yorkin also created “Good Times,” about a working class Black family in Chicago; “Sanford & Son,” a showcase for Foxx as junkyard dealer Fred Sanford; and “One Day at a Time,” starring Bonnie Franklin as a single mother and Bertinelli and Mackenzie Phillips as her daughters. In the 1974-75 season, Lear and Yorkin produced five of the top 10 shows.

Lear’s business success enabled him to express his ardent political beliefs beyond the small screen. In 2000, he and a partner bought a copy of the Declaration of Independence for $8.14 million and sent it on a cross-country tour.

He was an active donor to Democratic candidates and founded the nonprofit liberal advocacy group People for the American Way in 1980, he said, because people such as evangelists Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson were “abusing religion.”

“I started to say, ‘This is not my America. You don’t mix politics and religion this way,'” Lear said in a 1992 interview with Commonweal magazine.

The nonprofit’s president, Svante Myrick, said “we are heartbroken” by Lear’s death. “We extend our deepest sympathies to Norman’s wife Lyn and their entire family, and to the many people who, like us, loved Norman.”

With his wry smile and impish boat hat, the youthful Lear created television well into his 90s, rebooting “One Day at a Time” for Netflix in 2017 and exploring income inequality for the documentary series “America Divided” in 2016. Documentarians featured him in 2016’s “Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You,” and 2017’s “If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast,” a look at active nonagenarians such as Lear and Rob Reiner’s father, Carl Reiner.

In 1984, he was lauded as the “innovative writer who brought realism to television” when he became one of the first seven people inducted into the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ Hall of Fame. He later received a National Medal of Arts and was honored at the Kennedy Center. In 2020, he won an Emmy as executive producer of ” Live In Front of a Studio Audience: ‘All In the Family’ and ‘Good Times’.'”

Lear beat the tough TV odds to an astounding degree: At least one of his shows placed in prime-time’s top 10 for 11 consecutive years (1971-82). But Lear had flops as well.

Shows including “Hot L Baltimore,” “Palmerstown” and “a.k.a. Pablo,” a rare Hispanic series, drew critical favor but couldn’t find an audience; others, such as “All That Glitters” and “The Nancy Walker Show,” earned neither. He also faced resistance from cast members, including “Good Times” stars John Amos and Esther Rolle, who often objected to the scripts as racially insensitive, and endured a mid-season walkout by Foxx, who missed eight episodes in 1973-74 because of a contract dispute.

In the 1990s, the comedy “704 Hauser,” which returned to the Bunker house with a new family, and the political satire “The Powers that Be” were both short-lived.

Lear’s business moves, meanwhile, were almost consistently fruitful.

Lear started T.A.T. Communications in 1974 to be “sole creative captain of his ship,” his former business partner Jerry Perenchio told the Los Angeles Times in 1990. The company became a major TV producer with shows including “One Day at a Time” and the soap-opera spoof “Mary Hartman Mary Hartman,” which Lear distributed himself after it was rejected by the networks.

In 1982, Lear and Perenchio bought Avco-Embassy Pictures and formed Embassy Communications as T.A.T.’s successor, becoming successfully involved in movies, home video, pay TV and cable ownership. In 1985, Lear and Perenchio sold Embassy to Coca-Cola for $485 million. They had sold their cable holdings the year before, reportedly for a hefty profit.

By 1986, Lear was on Forbes magazine’s list of the 400 richest people in America, with an estimated net worth of $225 million. He didn’t make the cut the next year after a $112 million divorce settlement for his second wife, Frances. They had been married 29 years and had two daughters.

He married his third wife, psychologist Lyn Davis, in 1987 and the couple had three children. (Frances Lear, who went on to found the now-defunct Lear’s magazine with her settlement, died in 1996 at age 73.)

Lear was born in New Haven, Conn. on July 27, 1922, to Herman Lear, a securities broker who served time in prison for selling fake bonds, and Jeanette, a homemaker who helped inspire Edith Bunker. Like a sitcom, his family life was full of quirks and grudges, “a group of people living at the ends of their nerves and the tops of their lungs,” he explained during a 2004 appearance at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston.

His political activism had deep roots. In a 1984 interview with The New York Times, Lear recalled how, at age 10, he would mail letters for his Russian immigrant grandfather, Shia Seicol, which began “My dearest darling Mr. President,” to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Sometimes a reply came.

“That my grandfather mattered made me feel every citizen mattered,” said Lear, who at 15 was sending his own messages to Congress via Western Union.

He dropped out of Emerson College 1942 to enlist in the Air Force and flew 52 combat missions in Europe as a turret gunner, earning a Decorated Air Medal. After World War II, he worked in public relations.

Lear began writing in the early 1950s on shows including “The Colgate Comedy Hour” and for such comedians as Martha Raye and George Gobel. In 1959, he and Yorkin founded Tandem Productions, which produced films including “Come Blow Your Horn,” “Start the Revolution Without Me” and “Divorce American Style.” Lear also directed the 1971 satire “Cold Turkey,” starring Dick Van Dyke about a small town that takes on a tobacco company’s offer of $25 million to quit smoking for 30 days.

In his later years, Lear joined with Warren Buffett and James E. Burke to establish The Business Enterprise Trust, honoring businesses that take a long-term view of their effect on the country. He also founded the Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication, exploring entertainment, commerce and society and also spent time at his home in Vermont. In 2014, he published the memoir “Even This I Get to Experience.”

Longtime AP Television Writer Lynn Elber retired from The Associated Press in 2022. Contributors include Alicia Rancilio in Detroit and Hillel Italie in New York.

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